John McWhorter, Mark Z. Danielewski: Dictionaries and the Bending of Language
ALOUD @ Los Angeles Public Library
English - April 12, 2016 03:00 - 1 hour - 80.7 MB - ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsArts interview entrepreneurship health business leadership news comedy entrepreneur culture politics Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Through the etymology of words, the OED exhibits the shape-shifting nature of language across time, reflecting how it bends to the task of describing our evolving human experience. But is all change good? What is the role of the dictionary in reporting, recording, and refereeing language variation and change?Linguist, political commentator and author of The Power of Babel and Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue, John McWhorter talks with genre-busting author of House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski about whether dictionaries support or inhibit the idiosyncratic use of language as a means of creative expression. Presented as part of the Library Foundation’s project, "Hollywood is a Verb: Los Angeles Tackles the Oxford English Dictionary".